This special issue of the JOBCR has been commissioned to celebrate the Journal's first 10 years and at what better time than in this age of the COVID pandemic, when concern, thinking, and action in relation to the concept of global health is ever more relevant.
Two driving forces of our time, for health and allied professionals, are the Sustainable Development Goals and the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery.
The Sustainable Development Goals were announced in 2016, “bold and transformative”, as well as challenging. The new agenda called on countries to begin efforts to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over the next 15 years. Of particular importance for all in the healthcare sector is SDG3 ‘Good health and Wellbeing’.
The Lancet Commission 1(2015) identified 5 billion people, largely the poor, marginalized and rural, who face impossible hurdles accessing surgery worldwide and for all practical purposes are excluded from what is often life-saving or disability-averting treatment. It was found that about 30% of the global burden of disease could be surgical. It represented the first evidence-based quantification of the need for surgery.
It has been widely perceived that standards of care, in many areas, were and possibly still are, not only unacceptable but also inequitable or having poor outcomes. Much of this awareness has been driven by globalization, which has resulted in rapid economic integration between countries by removing obstacles to the global movement of capital and the production of goods and services. This has been facilitated by improved IT and communication. Driven by unprecedented levels of wealth and the creation of many jobs, poverty levels have reduced in certain sectors of society, though there is an ever-widening gap between the rich and poor countries low and middle-income countries (LMICs), and between the rich and the poor people.
Over the last five years or so since the publication of these important agendas, there has been significant progress. The papers within this issue will highlight work by many eminent colleagues, covering a wide range of issues, specifically, in relation to delivering high quality, accessible and safe healthcare, surgery and craniofacial surgery into communities in LMICs; wider access to better education through telehealth and telemedicine; research, development and innovation; and ethical issues in particular in relation to acceptance of facial disfigurement.
It is hoped that readers will see this issue as highlighting the very important agendas facing health care providers in today's global world.
Reference
- 1.Meara John G. Global Surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development. The Lancet. 2015;386:569–624. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60160-X. In press. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]